Dubbed the world's first robot theme park, the oft-delayed Robot Land would compete for visitors with the world's 10th busiest theme park (Everland) and the world's largest indoor theme park (Lotte World) in the greater Seoul area.

With 2.8 million visitors expected annually, Robot Land would serve as both a major South Korean tourist attraction and a showcase for the country's robotics industry.

Concept art of the still-evolving park shows amorphous-shaped futuristic architecture ringed by a monorail track with Robotland spelled out in the nearby hills à la the Hollywood sign.

An aerial view of the park reveals four themed lands (Robot Kingdom, Kidbot Village, Robotopia and Fun City) along a waterfront with a distinctive green glass pyramid at a central hub.

A 365-foot-tall Taekwon V tower, based on the robot from a beloved 1976 South Korean animated film, would serve as the park's central icon with an observation deck at the top and a dark ride themed to the automaton hero at the base.

Among Robot Land's marquee attractions:

> A Kuka arm robocoaster similar to Knights Tournament at Legoland California and Sum of All Thrills at Walt Disney World

> A giant wheel with a clockwork gears motif similar to the London Eye

> An aquarium where visitors control robot fish

> A robot arena where boxer-bots fight à la "Real Steel"

Park operators plan to work with a number of intellectual property holders (20th Century Fox, Warner Bros.) and amusement park operators (Legoland, Disney) to provide themes for Robot Land's rides and attractions.

Plans for Robot Land call for the park to feature movie sets from "Minority Report" starring Tom Cruise, "I, Robot" starring Will Smith and the "Matrix" trilogy starring Keanu Reeves.

The park's Robot Character Hall would include exhibits based on the Transformers, Star Wars and Astroboy movie franchises as well as experimental robots built by manufacturers like Sony, Toyota and Honda.

Virtually every aspect of the planned park would have some type of robot theme.

Robot-themed rides at the park would include a free-fall drop tower, water flume, bumper cars and merry-go-round.

A robot-centric water park would feature a lazy river, wave pool and slide tower.

Even the restaurants would have robot waiters that break into regular staged performances during dinner.

Opening in phases starting in 2013 and continuing into 2014, Robot Land eventually would be ringed by shopping districts, research and development facilities, robotics trade schools and high-rise commercial buildings.

Construction is set to begin in July on a 150-acre Hello Kitty theme park expected to open in 2014 in China's Zhejiang province, about three hours west of Shanghai. It would be the third Hello Kitty park, after Puroland and Harmonyland, both in Japan.

The blurry, fuzzy concept art of a Shanghai Disneyland, filled with fireworks, spotlights and a great big castle, paints a picture short on details and vague on specifics about the planned project in China.

Let's take a closer look at the new attractions planned for U.S. theme parks in 2013, including some major projects by big industry players and several significant additions by smaller parks. Here are our top 13 for 2013:

Legoland Malaysia will feature miniature Asian landmarks, including a 42,500-brick Taj Mahal and a replica of Malaysia's twin Petronas Towers -- which will become the tallest Lego model in the world -- when the theme park opens in late 2012.

At first I thought it was too early to look ahead at the new attractions coming to U.S. theme parks in 2013, but then I realized a number of big rides have already been announced and many more are already in the planning stages.